About five years ago, as NBC was contemplating who would eventually replace Jay Leno as host of “The Tonight Show,” he told top NBC executives that he was interested in becoming a late-night host, possibly succeeding Mr. Brokaw in 2004, transcended the news division, and had ambitions beyond the anchor chair. Since then, “Today” has fallen behind its ABC rival “Good Morning America,” “Meet the Press” has suffered severe ratings declines, and now the network’s evening newscast is in disarray. At the time, “Nightly News,” the “Today” show and “Meet the Press” all ranked at the top of the ratings charts. When Comcast acquired NBC Universal in 2011, Brian Roberts, Comcast’s chief executive, called the news division “the crown jewel” of his giant media group. Turness, and Pat Fili-Krushel, chairwoman of NBCUniversal News Group. The scandal is also a stinging blow for the NBC news division under its new chief, Ms. Holt, 55, while widely respected, is not as famous a figure at NBC as Matt Lauer, the co-host of the “Today” Show. Williams’s departure further diminishes the vaunted standing of the nightly network news anchor last year ABC News chose to keep its chief anchor, George Stephanopoulos, as the co-host of “Good Morning America,” and elevate David Muir to the evening anchor chair. “This has been a painful period for all concerned, and we appreciate your patience while we gathered the available facts,” Mr. The “Nightly News” staff learned about it in a meeting after the evening broadcast. Williams that NBC had decided to suspend him. Only the two men were present, according to a person briefed on the meeting, and Mr. Burke, the chief executive of NBCUniversal. Williams was informed of his punishment Tuesday morning when he went to the Upper West Side apartment of Stephen P. On the other hand, he added, “Maybe they’re hoping that with a six-month cooling-off period, he’s got a loyal fan base.” “I don’t know how he can ever read the news with a straight face, or how the public will respond if he does,” said Mark Feldstein, a broadcast journalism professor at the University of Maryland. Six months is a long time to disappear from the television landscape, and analysts said it would be difficult for him to re-establish himself as a viable nightly presence. Almost none of his peers in the news business came to his support. In the six days since he admitted his mistake, he was pilloried relentlessly online, with Twitter feeds mocking him and amateur truth squads investigating his past reporting. But his embellishment of his helicopter journey and questions about his other reporting undermined the trust viewers placed in him.
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